R.C.B.S. die ?

[lreed]

Bought a bunch of reloading stuff at a garage sale yesterday,included was a 38-357 rcbs three die set. The carbide sizing die was missing the decapper,however the expander die has the decapper pin,I have never seen this arrangement except in much older dies. I am curious. Thanks lreed

[Ickisrulz]

Bought a bunch of reloading stuff at a garage sale yesterday,included was a 38-357 rcbs three die set. The carbide sizing die was missing the decapper,however the expander die has the decapper pin,I have never seen this arrangement except in much older dies. I am curious. Thanks lreed

I have a 30 Carbine set from RCBS with the same setup. My dies are marked 1974. I don't know when they started this or stopped it.

[TNsailorman]

For some reason many of the older die manufacturers put the de-capper in the expander die. It works just fine but does put an extra step in the process if you prime on the press as you can de-cap, size and re-prime on the same die station, especially if you are using a multi-stage or progressive press. The people who are effected the most are those who use a powder thru expander die. I prime off the press on nearly all my reloading and use a RCBS Rckchucker, A Pacific Super, or a Lachmiller tri press, all single stage presses. works for me anyway, james

[ReloaderFred]

These sets were common when I started reloading in 1963. It was the way we did things back then. Carbide dies didn't have decappers at first, because they didn't come into common usage until the late 1960's, other than Lifetyme dies, which were expensive and beyond the budget of the average reloader back then. I have a couple of Lifetyme .38 caliber sizing dies, by the way....

The Lifetyme and Lyman carbide dies were the first I remember with the decapper in the size die.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[lreed]

Thanks,I was curious as I had not seen rcbs dies of this sort. I have a Hollywood mfg.45Colt two die set with I think, a sizer, decapper and expander all in one die, just sorta size and sorta expander.
What was screwed into the carbide sizer die on this rcbs set if anything? Thanks lreed

[ReloaderFred]

There was probably nothing screwed into the carbide die. A lot of them weren't even threaded to accept an insert, since it wasn't considered needed. Almost all the commonly used presses were single stage, with a few exceptions. The Star, Loadamatic and some of the early C-H presses were progressive designs, along with some turret presses, but most were single stage. There were other semi-progressive presses, too, but not commonly encountered.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Hardcast416taylor]

Call RCBS and they will repair/replace the die with the missing carbide ring for free.Robert

[bedbugbilly]

Are your dies date stamped on the top? I've seen them that way but have no idea of the dates. IIRC, I have a set of Lachmiller 38/357 dies that are set up that way. Unfortunately, I am still unpacking from our move and it will be a while before I can find them and check.